The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards ceremony were announced earlier this week, and just like every year, there were surprises and snubs all around, but one surprise certainly has people talking. Andrea Riseborough received a nomination for Best Actress for To Leslie, a drama in which she plays a single mother who takes a job at a motel to turn her life around after she squandered her lottery winnings with drugs and alcohol. The controversy arose due to the “targeted campaigning conducted by its supporters on behalf” of the actress, prompting the Academy to issue a statement that they would be conducting a review of campaign procedures.
“It is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive awards process,” the Academy’s statement reads. “We are conducting a review of the campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication. We have confidence in the integrity of our nomination and voting procedures, and support genuine grassroots campaigns for outstanding performances.”
As you can see, the statement from the Academy doesn’t mention To Leslie or the Andrea Riseborough nomination directly, but most are reading between the lines. “The idea that you need endless resources, I don’t think that’s necessarily true,” Riseborough said after the Oscar nominations were announced. “The people who made sure of that is our community. It feels like the film community rallied around and made a noise.“
So just why are people so upset? Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with championing a movie and praising its stars, but rival Oscar campaigns have claimed that those behind To Leslie used “aggressive tactics” to spread their message. Academy rules forbid individuals from giving “their personal signature, personal regards, or pleas to watch the film” when campaigning to voters, but there’s no evidence that Andrea Riseborough did so directly. The team behind the nomination realized that they only needed 218 of the 9,579 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members to write down her name. The grassroots campaign found champions in Edward Norton, Jane Fonda, Cate Blanchett, and many other celebrities, but some have argued that the campaign forced Viola Davis (The Woman King) and Danielle Deadwyler (Till) out of the running.
No matter what happens, the controversy has undoubtedly put To Leslie on the map for those who wouldn’t have even heard of the film otherwise.